


Of responsibilities, of caring

by singingdevil



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 13:19:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10854822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singingdevil/pseuds/singingdevil
Summary: "The blinds are shut, filtering in a little bit of light from the outside. It's quiet, save for the sound of breathing that Kenma can hear coming from the direction of their bed. He finds Kuroo under the covers, curled up on his side and head tucked between two pillows."Kuroo drives himself to the ground, Kenma worries and maybe they end up okay.





	Of responsibilities, of caring

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, it's been a long time since my last fic. I'm so sorry. I'm also super behind on Haikyuu so I have no idea if some new groundbreaking character revelations have happened.
> 
> This is not proofread because the second I got it finished I was done. I've bee writing this for God-knows-how-long and I just wanted to get it out here, so if you spot any mistakes, please let me know!

When Kenma arrives home on Sunday from his visit to Shouyou’s, all the lights in their apartment are off. It’s not surprising, considering the time – by three PM on Sunday Kuroo has usually finished his schoolwork for the weekend after driving himself to the ground on Saturday, so he’s probably hanging out with Bokuto or Yaku. Kenma wasn’t supposed to be home yet, after all, but he’d taken an earlier train at Shouyou’s apologetic request. 

Kenma understands where Shouyou was coming from, though; he would have done the same thing had Kuroo come home looking half as upset as Kageyama had looked in those three brief seconds Kenma had seen him. 

Now that Kenma is home, he’s ready to spend the rest of the afternoon slamming Skyrim. But as he sets his bag down and kicks his shoes off, he quickly counts three, four, five pairs of shoes, and stops. Kuroo keeps three pairs of shoes out, Kenma keeps two, so if Kuroo was out, there would now be four pairs. Kenma hits the light switch in the hallway and glances around – all of Kuroo’s jackets are in place, too. Having just been outside, Kenma knows that it’s not warm enough to leave without long sleeves, and having lived with Kuroo as long as he has he also knows that Kuroo does not own long sleeved shirts. Kuroo owns an atrocious amount of t-shirts and tank tops and a few comfy hoodies only to be used at home or in the dead of winter, but he does not own long sleeved shirts excluding that one hideous Christmas sweater Bokuto got him as a joke a few years back. 

Now Kenma is worried. Staying alone at home isn’t like Kuroo at all, not if it isn’t because of studying and even then Kuroo prefers study groups. Furthermore, if Kuroo was studying, there would be lights on in the apartment. As he walks further in, he finds a cup half-full of tea gone cold in the kitchen.

Kuroo does not drink tea unless he’s feeling like crap.

Kenma shrugs his hoodie onto one of the chairs around their small kitchen table and takes a deep breath. The bedroom door is closed, which doesn’t usually happen unless they’re both sleeping in there, and Kenma is a little unsure of going in, but by now he has come to the conclusion that Kuroo is most likely sick and Kenma needs no know how bad it is. 

Carefully, Kenma knocks on the door and slides it open quietly. The blinds are shut, filtering in a little bit of light from the outside. It's quiet, save for the sound of breathing that Kenma can hear coming from the direction of their bed. He finds Kuroo under the covers, curled up on his side and head tucked between two pillows. From what Kenma can see, he's wearing a hoodie. 

He thinks about the pros and cons of waking Kuroo up. If Kuroo is sick, sleep is good for him - actually, sleep is always good for Kuroo, he doesn't get nearly enough of it - but then again Kuroo probably hasn't eaten anything the whole day, let alone taken even a painkiller at any point, so maybe it would be better to wake him up. 

Kenma lifts the pillow on Kuroo's head and throws it to the other side of the bed. Kuroo looks pale, Kenma thinks, but then again it's dark so he could be imagining things. He hopes he is, but as he sets his hand on Kuroo's forehead he decides it's better to just accept the truth. Kuroo has a fever, a quite impressive one at that, and he doesn't even flinch at the touch. 

Kenma proceeds to shake him lightly. Kuroo groans in response and curls up further, hand searching for the missing pillow. Kenma shakes him again and grabs the wandering hand, intertwining their fingers. 

"Kuro." The other's name rolls off his tongue naturally, the syllables familiar in his mouth and ears. Kenma's voice is quiet by nature, so he doesn't have to resort to whispering - his inside voice is meant for quiet. Kuroo's eyes flutter open.

"Kenma?" he rasps, rubbing his eyes. His fingers quickly find the bridge of his nose and he takes a shaky breath and closes his eyes again. "Why are you home already, weren't you --" Kuroo stops talking and his eyes snap to the digital clock on the nightstand. 

"No no  _ no  _ I was supposed to make you dinner..." he mumbles as he hastily tries to scramble out of bed. Kenma stops him, however, and pushes him back.

"Kuro, it's hours before dinnertime," he answers, frowning. "And I took an earlier train, I wasn't supposed to be home before evening, anyway. How long have you been sick?"

"I was supposed to go shopping. I swear I was supposed to take like a twenty-minute nap..." Kuroo drags his hand across his face, other hand still in Kenma's. His voice is raspy, rough with more than just sleep. Kenma repeats his question.

"I started feeling like shit last night," Kuroo groans. "Threw up everything I'd eaten but I thought it was just stress, you know, sleep and feel better."

"How much did you sleep last night and have you eaten anything today?" Kenma continues questioning as he sits down next to Kuroo on the bed.

"Not much, woke up around eight and continued schoolwork, popped a few pills and decided to take a nap around eleven, and... then you woke me up. Please don't tell me that I took a four-hour nap." 

"You took a four-hour nap." 

"God. No wonder I feel like death warmed over." Kenma sees Kuroo grit his teeth as a shiver makes its way up to his shoulders and neck and locks up the muscles there. Despite the warm hoodie he's wearing Kuroo still looks cold, and he’s stiff and probably in pain. He should, by all accounts, go back to sleep, because his current state is most likely caused at least partially by the fact that he considers four hours of sleep a luxury. Kenma wants to get him eat something, though, because the constant caffeine diet is also a probable factor.

“I’m gonna get you a thermometer and then something to eat,” Kenma tells as he makes his way back to the door. He hears Kuroo trying to get up behind him, too, to follow him into the kitchen, but Kenma turns around and points at the bed sharply. “Back in there.” Kuroo complies easily enough, slumping back onto the mattress quite lifelessly.

When Kenma gets back to their bedroom, Kuroo is still sitting on the edge of the bed. His head is hanging low and his back is heaving with harsh breaths, and Kenma hurries to him, quickly setting the thermometer and the single slice of plain toast onto the nightstand. He can't see Kuroo’s face from this angle, but his hands are shaking and that tells him enough. Kenma sits down next to him, carefully.

“Kuro, are you gonna be sick?” he asks, because that’s exactly what Kuroo looks like.

Kuroo swallows thickly. “Shouldn’t,” he manages to choke out, fists clenching above his head. He takes a slow, careful breath and then gags, and Kenma grabs a trash can from next to the bed and shoves it under Kuroo’s face. Kuroo, however, shakes his head and presses his hands to his eyes. Kenma sets the trash can back down and instead reaches for the thermometer. 

Kuroo sits quietly and still, dazed, until the damn thing lets out the god-awful, shrill noise as an indication of being done. He cringes, and Kenma takes the thermometer frowning. 

“I’m gonna get you something for that fever. Thirty-eight and seven, Kuro,” Kenma tells him, frowning all the while. He doesn't like worrying about Kuroo - Kuroo is, after all, supposed to be solid and responsible and in control. He’s not, he’s an overachieving workaholic with no sense of his own limits and Kenma is very well aware of the façade Kuroo puts up to the rest of the world, and he knows Kuroo tends to crash occasionally. It doesn’t make it any easier.

Kuroo is asleep when Kenma enters the room with a few pills and a glass of water. He’s congested to hell and back and he’s breathing through his mouth, the fever-flush present and his hair drooping. By all accounts Kenma should wake him up and make him take the fever-reducers, but he can’t bring himself to do that again. Sleep is such a rare luxury for Kuroo that Kenma leaves the items in his hands on the nightstand, pulls another blanket from the closet and after covering Kuroo with it, retreats to the living room.

He just hopes that the next time Kuroo wakes up, he’ll feel better.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have a companion KageHina fic in the works, too! But while we're waiting for that to happen, please drop a comment!


End file.
